Direct tax collections in the first eight months of the current financial year increased 3.7 per cent to Rs 1,83,822 crore, against Rs 1,77,251 crore in the April-November period of 2008-09.

The tax collected so far is only half of the Rs 3,70,000 crore target set by the government for this year. In the next four months, the revenue department will have to collect a similar amount to meet the target.

Corporate tax collections went up 3.17 per cent to Rs 1,13,210 crore at the end of November 2009-10, compared with Rs 1,09,735 crore in the same period last year. Personal income tax grew 4.53 per cent to Rs 70,262 crore, compared with Rs 67,215 crore in the year-ago period, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in a media statement on Wednesday.

During November 2009, net direct tax collection rose marginally to Rs 10,375 crore, compared with Rs 10,346 crore in November 2008. While personal income tax growth was 23.8 per cent at Rs 7,161 crore against Rs 5,785 crore last fiscal, corporate tax fell 29.5 per cent to Rs 3,214 crore, against Rs 4,561 crore last financial year.

In the April-November period, collections by way of the Security Transaction Tax - a tax on transactions on the bourses - stood at Rs 4,349 crore, up 4.44 per cent, compared with last fiscal.

The direct tax collection target of Rs 3,70,000 crore this year is 9.4 per cent higher than the actual collection last year, which fell short of the target due to the global economic meltdown. The government had collected Rs 3,40,000 crore, against a target of Rs 3,45,000 crore.